Embodiments of the present inventive concepts relate to an apparatus for the heating of plastics material pre-forms. It is known conventionally for plastics material pre-forms to be shaped into plastic bottles in blow moulding machines. For this purpose these plastics material pre-forms are usually first heated in a furnace. Furnaces are known through which the plastics material pre-forms are conveyed, in which case for example the plastics material pre-forms are conveyed past heating elements, as well as those furnaces which have individual heating stations for heating the plastics material pre-forms. DE 10 2009 047 537 A1 describes a furnace of this type for the conditioning of pre-forms.
For many beverages it is necessary for them to be filled under aseptic conditions. In this case it is known for a sterilization process to sterilize—upstream of the blow moulding machine—plastics material pre-forms which are possibly contaminated by germs. Following this, containers can be transferred to an aseptic filling mechanism by way of an aseptic blow moulding machine.